About a week ago, I was taking my dog out for a walk when I heard a loud crying mew. I went searching for the source, and it seemed to be coming from this large planter type structure attached to the front of a house near mine. I lifted up one of the bushes growing there and found this tiny, crying kitten... There was no sign of a mom, littermates or even a nest so I have no idea how she got there! The planter is 4-5 feet off the ground so there's no way the kitty could have just crawled in.
Anyway, it was rather cool out so I was worried the baby would get chilled. I took her in my house right away. She was guessed to be about 1-2 weeks old but very small for her age. Later I went out searching for any more kittens or a mother but did not find any. We have a lot of ferals in the neighborhood.
The lucky thing was I already had a heating pad, kitten milk replacement, and a new extra kitten bottle in the house (I recently petsat for an orphan kitten). This meant I was able to get her warmed up and fed right away. She really was not liking the bottle even after a day+, she would keep crying when I tried to feed her and spitting it out, but then rooting around for food. I decided to try to find a surrogate nursing mom cat for her. I got a message from someone who had rescued a pregnant cat which had given birth 2 weeks ago but two kittens were stillborn so she was only raising 2 and had too much milk. She was vet checked and tested and everything already, the rescuer had taken her in after the birth to make sure the stillbirths were not caused by health problems (the vet said they weren't.) It turned out the woman with the rescued mom lived right in my neighborhood!
Luckily she accepted the baby with no problems at all. The rescuer separated all the babies from the mom and put the orphan with the rest of the litter, then a while later let the mom back in and mom picked up each kitten, brought them all back to her nest and started nursing all three.
So the little baby is being raised by a surrogate/foster mom. I will be bringing her back home when she is weaned and ready. I totally fell in love with her in the 2 days I had her... She is either a calico or a torbie, not sure which yet.
You can see photos here
of the kitten. The woman who is fostering her said she would send me some soon of her with her new "mom."
Anyway, it was rather cool out so I was worried the baby would get chilled. I took her in my house right away. She was guessed to be about 1-2 weeks old but very small for her age. Later I went out searching for any more kittens or a mother but did not find any. We have a lot of ferals in the neighborhood.
The lucky thing was I already had a heating pad, kitten milk replacement, and a new extra kitten bottle in the house (I recently petsat for an orphan kitten). This meant I was able to get her warmed up and fed right away. She really was not liking the bottle even after a day+, she would keep crying when I tried to feed her and spitting it out, but then rooting around for food. I decided to try to find a surrogate nursing mom cat for her. I got a message from someone who had rescued a pregnant cat which had given birth 2 weeks ago but two kittens were stillborn so she was only raising 2 and had too much milk. She was vet checked and tested and everything already, the rescuer had taken her in after the birth to make sure the stillbirths were not caused by health problems (the vet said they weren't.) It turned out the woman with the rescued mom lived right in my neighborhood!
Luckily she accepted the baby with no problems at all. The rescuer separated all the babies from the mom and put the orphan with the rest of the litter, then a while later let the mom back in and mom picked up each kitten, brought them all back to her nest and started nursing all three.
So the little baby is being raised by a surrogate/foster mom. I will be bringing her back home when she is weaned and ready. I totally fell in love with her in the 2 days I had her... She is either a calico or a torbie, not sure which yet.
You can see photos here
of the kitten. The woman who is fostering her said she would send me some soon of her with her new "mom."
